Investigation launched into whether death in regional SA hospital is linked to nationwide Telstra outage
Police are investigating whether this week’s death is linked to a nationwide Telstra outage that left thousands of Australians unable to call triple-0.
Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle said the death of an elderly person at a regional hospital in South Australia on Wednesday occurred during the Telstra outage that morning.
“After contacting Telstra, the media and relevant authorities, my office advised the family to reach out directly to SAPOL. The grieving family has done so today,” the statement said.
South Australian police confirmed officers spoke to Senator Liddle and a member of staff in his office on Thursday.
“As a result, the family of a deceased person were contacted at a regional hospital on Wednesday, July 8,” SA Police said, according to ABC News.
“The police were not notified of the death. After receiving the news of the death, the police immediately launched an investigation into the cause and circumstances of the incident.”
The cause or circumstances of death are unknown but will remain under investigation.
Senator Liddle described the outage as “completely unacceptable” and noted that many people were unable to call emergency services even 12 hours after the initial service outage.
“Anyone affected by this outage should tell their story to Telstra, Minister Anika Wells and the relevant authorities. Our thoughts are with the family,” he said.
Telstra Chief Financial Officer Michael Ackland confirmed on Thursday that more than 600 customers were subject to welfare checks as a result of unsuccessful calls to triple-0.
“There were 230 people who called via SMS reporting that no assistance was required, 402 cases required a voice follow-up call, 170 of those 402 cases were passed on to police for further welfare checks or assistance, and a total of seven callers advised that they required assistance, details of which were then forwarded to the relevant emergency services agencies.”
A total of three calls failed to reach triple 0 in WA due to the Telstra outage, not all of which were considered accidental, WA Police said on Thursday.
“WA Police carried out three welfare checks during the outage; two calls were from the same subscriber,” a spokesman said.
Police across the country have been asked to carry out welfare checks after Telstra was unable to reach customers who were unable to contact emergency services.
Thousands of customers were left disconnected when the network went dark around 2am (WA time) across the country on Wednesday.
